Two Weeks of Mayhem
by Trins xxx
Summary: When Jessie finds out that her dad is going to marry Jade, she doesn't take it well. She goes to a college bar to get horrendously drunk. Unfortunately, when Hadji and Jonny come to find her, nobody seems to know what happened to Jessie after that...


**Disclaimer****: **I don't own The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.

**Author's Note:** My first attempt at writing any sort of fanfiction based on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. As inspiration, I would like to mention Debbie Kluge and her writing. As clearly implied by the title, this story will take place over two weeks, most likely one chapter per day.

**Synopsis****:** When Jessie finds out that her dad is going to marry Jade, she blows a fuse and goes to a bar to get horrendously drunk. Unfortunately, nobody knows what happened to her after that...

**Wor****d Count****: **1650 so far.

Two Weeks of Mayhem

Day 1

The day, for Jessie Bannon, had started off as average at best and progressively worsened, which was how she ended up brooding in a college bar, getting horrendously drunk with the fake ID she herself had made. She was brooding specifically over how stupid her dad was. It was clear to anyone with a single functioning brain cell (which, admittedly, her dad sometimes didn't have) that her mum still held a torch for him, considering she had never dated anyone since their divorce. And sure, she was too realistic to consider A Parent Trap sort of ending as anything but unlikely, especially with her dad's track record with women. But why did he choose _Jade_ of all women, to settle down with? The woman was a witch at best, a bitch most times and downright cruel when she wanted to be, and she couldn't see what in the world her dad saw in her.

Which was all true but her dad hadn't taken it well when she'd yelled it down the phone before throwing it against the wall. She'd sat there, motionless for a while, before finally reaching out for the spare cell-phone she always had (some of her previous tantrums resulting in similarly broken phones) and dialled Jonny, albeit a little reluctantly. The last call between them hadn't gone well, probably because of Jessie's comments about his latest flavour of the week. It used to amuse her how easily Jonny fell for feminine charms, only to fall out of love (infatuation) just as quickly, until it started grating on her nerves. He'd miss their plans for whatever his latest girlfriend wanted to do and it resulted in snarky comments from her. It didn't occur to her that when she fell for a guy, she did the same thing; she just tended to fall in love a lot less often.

All in all, it was probably better for the both of them that they were going to different colleges but it didn't mean that Jonny wasn't one of her closest friends and that they wouldn't risk their lives for each other in a millisecond, like they had been doing for years. That was ultimately why she had called him up, regardless of their last argument.

Unfortunately, this call hadn't gone any better. She probably should've looked at the time and realised it was too early for Jonny. The call had gone through and Jonny had picked up (with a nameless female murmuring a 'who is it' in the background, no doubt after sex). He became even grumpier when Jessie hadn't been able to resist making a joke at the 'latest girlfriend's' expense. After the initial bickering, Jessie had finally gotten straight to the point, stating with her usual bluntness that her dad was marrying Jade and could he believe it. The conversation could have been salvaged if Jonny had been appropriately sympathetic and said anything other than what he did say – yeah, he'd talked to Race a couple of days ago. The stab of pain was swiftly converted into anger (a far more bearable emotion) and it had taken considerable self-control on Jessie's part to end the call before throwing this phone against the mirror.

_Couple of days ago?_ Race had told Jonny before his own _daughter_? She'd known that Race was close to Jonny just the way she was close to Benton, but now it felt like Race had replaced her with Jonny and it _hurt like hell_. It was like she'd been left behind without noticing it and it was _humiliating_ and she now had tears in her eyes, which was absolutely _pathetic_.

She'd pulled herself together, grabbed her laptop and shot off an implored appeal, e-mailing Hadji to call her when he could because of her dad's impending catastrophe of a marriage (assuming Hadji didn't know already, she thought viciously) and sat staring blankly ahead. Eventually, she'd decided that it would be a good idea to get as pissed as she was pissed off and she'd wondered onto the streets and into the first bar she came across.

With no empty tables during happy hour, she had plopped herself down at the bar and then continued to snap at anyone who dared to talk to her, drank lots of different drinks until she settled for double vodka and coke and brooded over the stupidity of some men (her dad) and the backstabbing-ness of others (Jonny). Somewhere between her third and sixth drink, she'd had the epiphany that she was throwing a classic teen tantrum. She realised that if she'd been upset with her dad for choosing to marry Jade, she should've discussed it in a mature fashion rather than insulting her to her dad. She'd recognised the major cause of the pain was the idea that she would be forgotten and, seriously, she chose the young age of _eighteen_ to get abandonment issues? She'd understood that she had been petty and jealous of Jonny and she had pondered whether to ring him up then and there, in spite of how much alcohol was hitting her system. And then she'd remembered that _her_ dad had told _Jonny_ before _her_ and that Jonny hadn't thought it worthwhile to call her about it either and instead of grabbing a phone, she'd signalled to the bartender for a couple more drinks and downed them one after another.

She had passed the feeling of warm well-being and was reaching the point where the room seemed to swim around when she turned her head too quickly when she was distracted by somebody calling out her name and sitting down next to her.

"I thought I recognised you," said a girl with an unflattering haircut, dowdy clothes and a curiously forgettable face. Jessie just stared blankly at her, no hint of recognition forming in her head, which clearly daunted the girl. "Erm, I'm Penny...from the Omega Mu Gamma stalls last week?" She stared at Jessie through watery grey eyes, her fingers kneading a nervous pattern in her lap. Jessie muttered an uninterested 'oh' before returning her gaze to her drink, hoping but not really expecting the girl (Penny?) to get the hint.

"You know...I've read _so much _about you. You know, all the adventures you've been on and all the exciting things you've seen," the girl (Penny) carried on and Jessie found her monotonous voice _so_ irritating. "I chose to come to Stanford because I heard that you were going to come here," she continued, missing the stiffening of Jessie's frame or how her fingers tightened around the glass of double vodka and coke in front of her. "I just thought maybe if I met you, we could be friends. I feel like I know you so well and we have so much in common and if you joined Omega, it would be so amazing. We'd be like sisters and I can't wait till you join."

Jessie turned to look at the girl (Penny) properly. She looked at the uninspiring hair and the unremarkable watery grey eyes. She looked closely at the indecisive mouth and the weak chin and wondered how this girl thought they could be friends. Jessie was used to people with 'Personality', a certain strength of character that shone through whatever they were doing at the time, from the way Hadji would stand upright to Jonny's stubborn chin and perpetual movement. The girl sitting next to her was less a number of characteristics and more an absence of anything jarring, such that it was disconcerting and almost unpleasant to look at. Jessie wouldn't be able to say what her features were like, only what they weren't and that had as much to do with how she looked physically as her clearly weak personality.

"So...how long have you been here? In this bar, I mean," Penny asked with a nervous smile.

"Ages," mumbled Jessie. She tapped her fingers against the glass, trying to think of a way to get her to leave without hurting her feelings.

"Wow. I couldn't spend that much time in here, especially when I'm not old enough to _actually drink alcohol_," Penny lowered her voice conspicuously on the last few words. "But I'm so glad I came here. It's been amazing talking to you and getting to know you-"

"_Getting to know me_?" Jessie interrupted her ruthlessly. The alcohol pumping through her arteries not only made her words slur together but it lowered her inhibitions enough for her to be brutally harsh and viciously blunt. "What do you know _about_ me? I haven't said more than five words to you, while you've been chattering away non-stop, so, really, what do you _actually _know about me?"

"I-I'm sorry," Penny blinked away tears that Jessie remained ignorant of. "I just wanted to be friends-"

"But I _don't_," Jessie interrupted with frustration. "I _don't_ want to be friends with you. I _don't_ want to be in Stanford. And I _don't_ want to be talking you right now. I didn't come here to make friends, I came here to drink and just..." Her tirade slowed to a halt with a sigh. God, she felt like such a bitch right now. The girl (Penny) might have been irritating but she definitely didn't deserve that.

"I'm sorry." The whispered words sounded as if they were dragged out of Penny's clogged throat, a couple of tears slipping down her cheeks.

"No, _I'm_ sorry," Jessie mumbled. "I shouldn't have said those things to you. I've been having a rotten day and I took it out on you." Her stomach was churning as much as the room was spinning. With the vague thought of going to the bathroom before she threw up, she stood up unsteadily before Penny put her arms around Jessie and helped her in the right direction.

When the bartenders were later questioned, they said that this was the last time they saw Jessie.


End file.
